When the Last Film Show was declared as India’s official entry for the Oscars, it left everyone surprised and curious. However, do you know that the director of the Gujarati film, Pan Nalin, was taken aback too? In a recent interview with News18 Showsha, Nalin talked about the same and revealed how he was not anticipating “anything at all".
“I was just busy trying to make the best film. As a filmmaker, making a film is in itself such an engrossing process. He (Dheer Momaya, Producer) was always convinced and anticipating that we will have something big with this film. He believed in it," Nalin told us.
“I was definitely taken aback because my focus had been on the release. We released the film in Spain and Germany. We were preparing the India release. So, I was really happy going around to the countryside to just show the movie to the group of invitees. That was going really well. People were really appreciating it. We had screenings in Chennai, Pondicherry, and Hyderabad too. When the news came, it changed the whole narrative around the film. Suddenly there was this tremendous curiosity (among all) about the film. It was nominated even before it was released. The cast and the crew were also thrilled because we know how much effort we had put in," the director added.
Considering SS Rajamouli’s RRR and Vivek Agnihotri’s The Kashmir Files were also in the race for India’s entry to the Oscars, we asked Pan Nalin about the film he thinks should have been selected, if not his. To this, the director laughed and said, “I think that’s for FFI (Film Federation of India) to decide, not me."
On being asked what worked in favour of the Last Film Show, Pan Nalin explained that the Bhavin Rabari starrer impressed everyone because of the strong portrayal of emotions in it. “I think it’s very simple – emotions, strong emotions. The chairman of the jury gave out a statement saying they were deeply moved. They laughed, and they cried. I think it’s always emotions. Cinematically also, they found it a satisfactory experience. They must have evaluated that the film has also been doing internationally well, India was not aware because was not released here," he told us.
However, Nalin also explained that for a movie to be selected as an official entry for the Oscars, it is also very important for the makers to have a US distributor. “There’s another very important element which most of the countries must consider – does their film have US distribution? When you go to The Academy, it is super important. You might have a great film, but do you have a distributor there? We had," he shared.
Pan Nalin also talked about the sudden rise of regional cinema’s popularity in the last few years and revealed why Gujarati movies are not appreciated as much as Telugu or Tamil films. He explained that the “biggest obstacle" for the Gujarati film industry is that the people who speak the language understand Hindi too.
“Hindi is nowhere close to the origin of Kannada, Tamil, Telugu or Malayalam. Unless a Hindi movie is dubbed in Tamil or Telugu, it is difficult for all to understand. Meanwhile, in Gujarat, this is not an issue. Gujaratis understand Hindi very well and that’s a huge obstacle for the industry to grow. Everyone here understands Hindi. They don’t need to dub Hindi movies into Gujarati. The same is the case in Rajasthan, Bihar, Punjab or Himachal. I think they (Gujarati movies) will have to wait, don’t know for how long but they will have to wait for a Rs 100 or Rs 200 crore Pan-India movie," he said.
Nalin concluded by saying, “I don’t think there will be anything like “regional cinema" ten years from now. There will be only Indian cinema. I hope so."
Read all the Latest Movies News here
Comments
0 comment